Today's the day, as any search marketer not living under a rock for the past few months knows. Yahoo's flipping the switch on its new ad ranking model, so that bid price is no longer the sole factor in determining ad positions. The new ad quality algorithm makes Yahoo more Googley, which they say will improve overall ad quality, and critics say will make Yahoo more money by forcing advertisers to overpay.

The truth, as always, is likely found somewhere in the middle. If all goes well, the new algorithm will improve ad quality, by making it harder for low-quality sites that are engaging in arbitrage to rank well. (That's not to say there are not quality sites that add value that are engaged in arbitrage -- I'm talking about the "made for AdSense" sites that are not adding anything but a middleman). In the short-term, it will also annoy many marketers that have grown used to having a purely bid-based alternative to Google.

We've already heard about the many issues with the transition and the roll-out of the new Panama interface. The new ranking model is bound to bring out a whole new round of concerns and complaints. Yahoo gives advertisers some tips on its Yahoo Search Marketing Blog. We'd love to hear about your experience, your complaints, and any tips for your peers here in the forum.

Not that everyone has the time for this...but at least this switch forces you to re-examine your ads and possibly refresh them for the utmost relevancy. I think that a system like this is why us SEMs have jobs. It's not necessarily easy to just take any old campaign and decrease CPC while increasing conversions and positions.

That said, it will definitely take time to get all of our clients campaigns adjusted to the new system. I have always disliked Yahoo's click index, and I hope that this new model improves on that basic system, because it always seemed so darn abitrary.

I will post again after I have some experience with the new ranking setup.

What we have done is to take what is working well over at Google as far as how Ad Groups are set up, targeted list of key phrases, ad creative, etc., and duplicate that over at Yahoo. We figure if it is working at Google, it should have equal chance at working with Yahoo's new ranking model.

We figure if it is working at Google, it should have equal chance at working with Yahoo's new ranking model.

That sounds like a good way to do it...and generally that's what we have done so far too. The main issue with that is Yahoo's traffic. That's one thing that is hard to account for. Your relevancy, ad quality, and landing page quality may work to get your click index rating high, but you can never be sure that the same traffic that made your Google campaign successful will be in Yahoo, looking for, or doing, the same things.

It's always tricky to find that balance of the correct audience targeting, and who is searching for what, where. David, you've definitely got the right idea though, and that's what I am recommending to all of our clients until we can think of something better.

The irony is in Yahoo’s blanket fix-it recommendation, the “keyword insertion” option. Because that solution has been so highly recommended lots of PPC buyers are doing it in the title.

A Yahoo search for “music production school” returns a SERP with 3 advertisers sporting “Music Production School” as the title. How funny is that: a play for ad relevancy has, at least temporarily, caused ads from different companies to be nearly indistinguishable and generic! LAUGH!

Conversions and conversion rate are down for my account. We also seem to be dealing with some competitors that are abusing the system (i.e.: multiple ads at seperate domains, bidding on competitor terms, etc.).